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Recap of my story so far: in a nutshell, I started looking at diet when I realized my problem could be related to what I was eating. Trouble sleeping (waking up every single night, no exception, between 2 and 3 AM without being able to sleep again), constant bloating and gas, acne, tiredness, no regular bowel movements. Cut gluten cause they found markers in blood, cut alcohol, refined food. Saw some improvements over 1 year but far from resolution of my symptoms. Also tried a bunch of other things, like flushes, elimination diets of different kind, paleo diet, kefir, etc... Noticed big improvements doing fasting and eating mostly vegetables, but of course something not easy to keep going in the long term. Finally tried BTD...

BTD: since 10 days I have basically eliminated meat, potatoes and rest of nightshades, milk and all avoids. I eat veggies, fish, rice, buckwheat and corn pasta, wine, coffee, some kefir. I noticed less acne and for the first time in my life I have BM after breakfast and lunch regularly. But I keep being bloated, still get some acne, still don't sleep all night, still white tongue. I feel like things are improving but I wonder whether I reached a plateau or not. I know it is only 10 days, but shouldn't I have no bloating at all already??? This is a very weird thing as I have always been bloated last 10-15 years, unless I do a cleanse, and I never put on weight. Like never. There is no way I get any fat at all. Which has always been a very weird thing I have no explanation for..

Can you help me understand what is going on and what I should expect or change?

10 days is not long enough for anything-- 3 months is a start and a year is better.

You need to know you secretor status and then go from there.

Get rid of the corn pasta ( you can have some rice pasta but never as the back bone of a diet)-- buy Live Right for Your Type and read about non secretors might be surprised to find yourself there.

Follow the basic A diet or the non secretor diet. Both are in the Live Right for Your Type.

Then move to the SWAMI which will take some work but in the end you will find that you feel better and better.

Still best would be to head to University of Bridgeport in Conn. to see Dr. D'Adamo and his team for the most targeted results.

As for sleep get some valerian take two caps and some melatonin 3 mg and take it one hour before bed. It will help you sleep more deeply you can add some ashwaghanda but try the two I mentioned first ( If it helps Dr. D told me to take those last time I saw him).

IF you are a nonnie you will need active b12 in the morning on a regular basis--

Lots to do try not to get overwhelmed be patient with your body concentrate on food for health.

MIFHI

"Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them." Anatole France

"Healthy people have the least overt symptoms from eating avoid foods." Dr. D'Adamo

10 days is still a very short time to be eating right, and your body has a lot of healing to do.

Bloating, gas, and constipation are usually signs of imbalanced gut flora, and a white tongue usually indicates a yeast overgrowth. Some yeast is a normal part of the gut ecosystem, but when there are too many yeasts and not enough of the right kinds of bacteria, it causes unpleasant symptoms.

You're now eating the right foods to "feed the good germs" but you haven't yet gotten the "bad germs" down to their normal numbers nor the "good germs" up to the populations they should have. As the gut flora shift over to a healthier balance, gas and bloating can continue, or even go through cycles of getting better and worse, all while moving towards overall healing.

Polyflora A should help get your gut in balance faster than only getting probiotics from kefir. There are probably some other gut-building supplements that would also help you along, although I'm not entirely sure which ones.

Sure some A will come to help soon. Some information that will be useful for them : Are you female or male?

Are you taking a probiotic other than kefir. Cleansing can kill, good and bad, making it easily for the bad bacteria to multiply causing bloating and renewing the cycle.

Oh, and welcome

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm a male and not taking other probiotics. I have taken in the past, of different kind. Nothing helped. I also had periods where I was drinking 1 liter kefir per day. Little difference. And by the way, I make kefir with unpasteurized goat milk.

Ref cleansing, I only had 3-4 of them over last 3 months to see if anything changed, but apart from getting flat belly after I flush, no big changes.

Ebla,First well done on taking a big step to better health. It does take time and patience.The white tongue is a sign of out of balance yeast and apparently most of us suffer with that due to antibiotics and the life style we have now. It has been my main challenge. You may want to watch that you don't eat too much fruit while you are working on that. A good probiotic will also help. And as others have said the longer you are on the diet it willhelp.You don't give your age but waking up can be caused by a variety of things. Caffeiene late in day, activities before bed such as computer related, etc. Eating close to time of going to bed also, at least 2 hour gap is supposed to be good.Keep up the great work!Lin

10 days is still a very short time to be eating right, and your body has a lot of healing to do.

Bloating, gas, and constipation are usually signs of imbalanced gut flora, and a white tongue usually indicates a yeast overgrowth. Some yeast is a normal part of the gut ecosystem, but when there are too many yeasts and not enough of the right kinds of bacteria, it causes unpleasant symptoms.

You're now eating the right foods to "feed the good germs" but you haven't yet gotten the "bad germs" down to their normal numbers nor the "good germs" up to the populations they should have. As the gut flora shift over to a healthier balance, gas and bloating can continue, or even go through cycles of getting better and worse, all while moving towards overall healing.

Polyflora A should help get your gut in balance faster than only getting probiotics from kefir. There are probably some other gut-building supplements that would also help you along, although I'm not entirely sure which ones.

Ebla,First well done on taking a big step to better health. It does take time and patience.The white tongue is a sign of out of balance yeast and apparently most of us suffer with that due to antibiotics and the life style we have now. It has been my main challenge. You may want to watch that you don't eat too much fruit while you are working on that. A good probiotic will also help. And as others have said the longer you are on the diet it willhelp.You don't give your age but waking up can be caused by a variety of things. Caffeiene late in day, activities before bed such as computer related, etc. Eating close to time of going to bed also, at least 2 hour gap is supposed to be good.Keep up the great work!Lin

I'm 30 yo, male, caucasian.

I have tested for candida and was negative. I also never seen any white stuff in my stools. Still possible I have it?

Remember how I said above that candida is part of the normal gut flora, but it only causes problems when it grows out of control? Well, it's quite possible to have "more candida than you should have" without having "enough candida to show up on lab tests." It's a more subtle form of imbalance. You probably don't need to do anything special to treat it, other than general work on fixing your gut.

I am following the diet and avoiding all avoids for secretors and non-secretors. However, two weeks and a half on the diet and things are worsening. I am sleeping worse than before, got a couple of huge pimples on my back (weird), lost regular BM which I had for the first 10 days. And all other symptoms not improving.

Can anyone tell me whether things are supposed to go so slow and actually getting worse instead of better? Any personal experience to share?

A certain amount of "detox" is normal. Things sometimes do get worse before they get better. The skin specifically doesn't worry me.

However, the lack of bowel movements, insomnia, and overall fatigue doesn't sound "normal" to me. This diet is as much about what you DO eat as what you avoid.

What has your diet been like? Are you eating lots of veggies and getting enough protein? Are you eating enough beneficial foods? (If you're trying to combine the secretor and non-secretor diets, I'd suggest considering a food "beneficial" if it's "beneficial" on one list and "neutral" on the other, to broaden your range of beneficial foods to eat.)

My diet is kefir with apple or veggie juice in the morning, coffee, rice with veggie like pumpkins or a pasta at lunch (buckwheat pasta), plus salad and veggies, maybe goat cheese, then peanuts and walnuts, and in the evening can be fish, veggies. Sometimes I get an egg, but I try to load on broccoli and beneficial as much as possible.

I am just discouraged because before starting I managed to get to sleep until 5ish in the morning without waking up, and now I am back to wake up regular at 2-3am, gassy, and not regular BM which I had first 10 days on the diet. Don't understand why it is getting worse when I cut out meat (which I was eating very often) and all the nightshades.